In some cases, it may be desirable to building a model of thermal properties of the building in order to help anticipate future conditions within the building and to help take appropriate actions to improve the comfort for individuals within the building. Obtaining sufficient environmental data from throughout a building in order to help build a reasonably good model of the thermal properties of the building can be challenging. One approach to obtaining such information is to place multiple sensors at multiple fixed locations through the building. Each of these sensors can then report a locally sensed environmental condition to a main controller in order to help build/update a model of the building. Because a relatively large number of temperature sensors may be required, such an approach can be cost prohibitive in many application.